Shortly after the Lumia 1020 launched, Nokia announced an open contest to developers around the globe. It was called Nokia Future Capture. The contest aimed for developers to dream up imaging apps and hacks to take advantage of some of the new hardware in the Lumia 1020. Nokia then chose ten ideas, flew the developers with those ideas to Sweden, and had a hackathon to see which ideas proved strongest. These are the results.

Let’s expand on the quick recap from above. The contest called for developers to submit ideas to Nokia around imaging. In July, Nokia released both their new Imaging SDK and a device to really push mobile photography – the Lumia 1020. The Nokia Future Capture contest was focused on giving developers the chance to push their creativity with imaging and photography. A developer could submit up to three ideas for an app or hack on those guidelines.

Nokia would then select the top 10 ideas. From there they brought the developers to Lund, Sweden for a hackathon. This hackathon was a place for those 10 winning ideas to be created by their developers. The contest was open to new ideas and apps/hacks previously created weren’t considered. This was an event to showcase new uses of the technology Nokia’s been creating.

The top prize? A Nokia Lumia 1020 and a trip to a Nokia event with all expenses paid (and VIP treatment). The top winner would also have their app promoted via several Nokia channels and the Windows Phone Store. Who won?

1st Prize – Rudy Chen and Shida Li, Canada

1st Runner Up – Jason Podwojski, UK

2nd Runner Up –Matt Cavanagh, South Africa

What did Rudy and Shida create to win the hackathon? The duo created a “Smart Resizing” app. What does it do? It allows a user to “downsample” an image, basically editing or removing empty space in an image to produce a final result that is seamless.

The video below highlights the entire event, but you can get a glimpse of their app towards the end. We’re confident we’ll be hearing, seeing, and using this app in the not too distant future.

Congrats to both Rudy and Shida and all the developers who participated in the hackathon. We hope to see all apps make it to the Store soon. The details around all the apps are scarce at the moment. Nokia is going to continue to help all participants make those apps a reality.

Missed out on the Nokia Future Capture contest? Don’t worry, Nokia is announcing a new contest soon. We’ll share the details when they do.

Watch the video to see a bit of the app in action. Basically let's say you take a picture of two people in an open field and there is a lot of "empty space" between the two. You could maybe remove that space so the two people appear closer in the image. And least that's what I understand.

I agree, I was really impressed.
...after only a few seconds of video showing the app, I'm still not sure about how it works exactly, but it looks like great idea. Hopefully we'll see it in the store soon.

I believe it allows you to protect user selected parts of an image from degradation when compressed. The file will then be smaller, albeit not as small if the whole image were compressed, but the selected, or "important" parts, wouldn't degrade

Other than Mr. Huyn in the Windows Phone community. Look no further than Rudolph (Rudy) Schenker of the Scorpions. That man is in his 60's, and has the stage performance energy of a man 1/3rd of his age. Running, jumping, swinging the guitar around his neck, just as he did 30 years ago. He hasn't lost a step.

Not impressed... How about an app that I can actually show off? Maybe an app that I can edit photos and/or video with my own soundtrack or music from my library. I use my phone on trips... This app could combine my trip photos or videos and make one great summary of my trip. That would impress me.

"The first runner-up in the contest is UK-based Jason Podwojski for his app called “Social Scene”; and the second runner-up is Matt Cavanagh (from South Africa) for his yet-to-be-named remote control app."

I really hope that Microsoft does not mess things up. I mean, the effort that Nokia was putting on windows phone was unparalleled. I hope that Microsoft shows the same sense of urgency towards its future because mobile is the future.

Does the app notify you that you're near a spot that has already been reached by another app user? That is, can it enable Toast Notifications like, "You are approaching a hot spot. Please take a picture!"?